


Three Chistmases

by Oparu



Series: a baby dragon and her terrible purple hat [29]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 13:11:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12936003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: Regina and Maleficent's first three Christmases together as a family, a little angsty, mostly fluffy, with mistletoe.





	Three Chistmases

On their first Christmas together, the tree is Regina and Henry’s. They fall easily into their old routines, listening to Christmas songs, hanging the ornaments on a perfectly fluffy, rounded, always green, tree. Some years they have a real one, once she dragged Henry out into the forest to cut one down, just so he’d have that experience too, but it’s wet and messy and there were still needles on the Mercedes in spring.

Mal and Lily came over for Christmas, but it wasn’t their house. Zelena and baby Robin had more ornaments that were theirs and the little one chewed the branches and the bows and the tape, anything not up high enough. She also spit up on Regina’s favorite red cashmere sweater and Zelena put too much rum in the egg nog.

Regina can’t stand rum but drank it anyway, chasing a headache while Lily and Henry played video games and Robin cried because she was teething. Zelena doesn’t have the patient for it. Her heart hurts the longer it goes on and then she starts to feel unworthy and Regina was still trying to get baby sick out of her sweater when the front door opened and closed and Zelena took it off. Leaving the damn thing on the washer, Regina headed out in her camisole because she can’t leave Henry with the baby if she’s teething. 

But Lily has her, headphones in, baby ibuprofen on the counter as she walks back and forth by the windows, staring at the snow. Regina looks back at Henry and Mal.

“She said she’d babysat.”

“Zelena didn’t want me to use magic on the baby’s teeth.”

“She’s walking, not driving,” Henry promised. 

Regina wrapped herself in a blanket and sits on the sofa between them, watching Lily soothe the baby. When Lily glanced over, she mouthed her thanks and Lily shrugged, not yet ready to be appreciated. Mal’s hand ran over her shoulder, and she leaned on Henry and turned on  _Die Hard_  because now that he’s old enough, he watches it and they think about his dad. Neal loved Bruce Willis.

Emma will drop by later, and he’ll be there tomorrow, but it’s on, and they’re all spent in a way that makes the sofa the easiest place to be. 

* * *

Their second Christmas, Robin’s walking, the little spark keeps kicking Mal in the ribs, Henry spends Christmas Eve with the Charmings, Emma and Killian and Lily helped Regina trim the tree with magic, from the sofa with a big glass of wine each. Mal can’t get enough naps, the wind screamed around the house and Lily listened to the stories behind every ornament, grinning at the quiet life Regina and Henry had together before the curse started to break. 

There’s a whole new box of ornaments, some of Mal’s Disney self because that makes her laugh, some castles, some dragons and flowers, some with just their names on bright metal and glass. 

The tree’s a real pine, heavy and shedding needles as the weeks go by. Henry’s right about how good it smells and Lily flew it back from the forest and got it in the living room with magic. Regina shrank it to fit the ceiling and found a spell to make the needles disappear from the floor so Robin won’t eat them.

Next year it’ll be the Spark trying to eat the leaves and Robin will probably be talking and Henry thinking about what he wants to do as an adult and Lily will probably just make a tree with magic because she learns so quickly and has so much power at her fingertips. 

“Okay, don’t freak out, but...Mom and I got this for you.” Lily hands over the little red box, and it holds three ornaments, one with Henry’s name, one with Lily’s one still blank. They’re simple stars, nothing as ornate as Mal would pick on her own, but it connects them, Lily, Henry and their little sister. 

She couldn’t even make an effort not to cry. Regina’s tears just started and Lily laughed and put an arm around her shoulders just like Mal would. “It’s okay, Mom. we got you. We got this.” She still hesitates a little with the word, but that makes it all the sweater and Lily hugs her tight. 

* * *

The third Christmas she and Mal decorate the tree alone. Lily’s working the diner’s Christmas party and Henry wanted to go because he loves to DJ. Zelena and Robin are on a trip to Oz, now that the little one’s old enough to appreciate it and the Munchkins have decided to allow Zelena to visit after all. Baby Araceli has ornaments from Henry, Snow, David, Emma, and half the town because like little Neal, she’s a symbol of hope. Villains too get their happy endings. 

She’s asleep upstairs, the baby monitor sits on the mantle and Mal sneaks in her glass of wine before she’s awake and needs to eat again. The tree glitters on every branch, and the magic reinforcing it and keeping the lights in place is a spell they worked together. The fire crackles and Mal rests her hands on Regina’s shoulders as they stare at the tree. It’s too big for the room, and this year rather than shrinking it down, Lily just trimmed the top, so it’s a very fat little pine, but it smells wonderful as it takes up half the living room. 

“So next year we’ll have to put the tree in the backyard and keep snow off of it with an awning,” Mal teases. “Just to fit on all the ornaments.” 

“Ara’s still new.” She snuggles back into the warmth of Mal’s body against hers. Henry received a similar influx of ornaments under the curse, but this feels different. Storybrooke knows their mayor is the evil queen and this chubby little one is going to grow up to be a great dragon like her mother and sister, but no one minds. She’s theirs anyway. 

“It’s a clever way to display one’s hoard, hanging it all on a tree.”

“You would think that.”

“And I love that we add to the hoard every year, making new ones, receiving gifts. It’s an excellent holiday.”

“Mountains of presents easily sway you.”

“Yes.”

Mal nuzzles her cheek and Regina turns to kiss her. “Mistletoe.”

Chuckling, Mal looks up and it is there. Regina doesn’t lie about mistletoe, moving it a little with magic...that’s another story.

“How many are there in the house this year?”

“Enough.” Regina shuts her eyes and inhales everything about this moment. Mal and the tree and the scent of the fire. “Just enough.” This is enough. More than. She lets her thoughts rest on her parents for an instant, and she reminds them that she’s happy. She’s content, and she forgives them.

They never had this. 


End file.
